Tag: SpaceX
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Video: SpaceX lands rocket on drone ship for first time
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster steered toward a first-ever landing on a drone ship floating 185 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean minutes after blasting off from Florida with a space station cargo ship. The 156-foot-tall booster, slowed by one of its Merlin rocket engines, descended to the football field-sized vessel about 8…
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Photos: SpaceX cargo mission prepared for launch
SpaceX’s eighth operational cargo mission to the International Space Station is set for liftoff with nearly 3.5 tons of research investigations, crew provisions and an experimental expandable habitat for the International Space Station. Launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for Friday at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT) from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch…
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SpaceX lands Falcon rocket at sea after launching a pop-up room to space station
The first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket stands erect on a drone ship after landing. (Credit: SpaceX) SpaceX launched a Dragon cargo capsule today with an expandable module for the International Space Station, and then successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on an oceangoing platform. The Atlantic Ocean landing, accomplished after four…
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SpaceX return Dragon to space as Falcon 9 nails ASDS landing
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft returned to flight Friday with the CRS-8 resupply mission to the International Space Station: a mission which also carries a prototype inflatable module for the outpost. The first Dragon mission since a launch failure last June, Friday’s mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 16:43 EDT (20:43 UTC), followed by a historic…
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Video: Launch camera replays from Friday’s Falcon 9 blastoff
Complex 40 tower UCS-3 tracker UCS-7 tracker UCS-15 tracker VAB roof NASA Causeway
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Mostly clear skies predicted for Friday’s SpaceX launch
A Falcon 9 rocket sits on its launch pad this week awaiting liftoff Friday at 2043 GMT (4:43 p.m. EDT). Credit: SpaceX Mostly clear skies and brisk westerly winds are forecast at launch time Friday afternoon for SpaceX’s first resupply mission to the International Space Station in nearly a year. There is a 90 percent…
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Videos: Previewing SpaceX’s eighth International Space Station resupply launch
Pre-launch news conference What’s aboard the Dragon
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SpaceX gets ready to launch expandable module for NASA to test on space station
An artist’s conception shows the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module attached to the International Space Station. (Credit: Bigelow Aerospace) For the first time, SpaceX is due to launch an entire room to the International Space Station – a room that can go into orbit folded up, and then be expanded like an accordion once it’s hooked up…
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SpaceX adds abort function for Dragon cargo flights
The Dragon spaceship set for liftoff Friday is pictured during launch preparations. Credit: SpaceX Taking a lesson from a launch failure last June, SpaceX wrote coded commands for future Dragon cargo capsules to deploy their parachutes for an emergency landing in the event of rocket explosions, starting with Friday’s resupply flight to the International Space…
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Static fire complete in run-up to launch of SpaceX supply ship
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is pictured inside the hangar at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad before rollout leading up to Tuesday’s static fire test. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX ran a Falcon 9 rocket through a customary preflight checkout Tuesday, filling it with super-cold propellants and firing its nine Merlin first stage engines in preparation for…